Kolkata, July 10 -- The financial investigation involving the Mamata Banerjee-led faction of the Trinamool Congress widened on Friday with Bidhannagar Cyber Crime police freezing 12 more bank accounts, while the faction separately moved the Calcutta High Court challenging the Enforcement Directorate's (ED) freezing of three HDFC Bank accounts under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The latest police action follows the earlier debit-freezing of three primary HDFC Bank accounts holding around Rs 440 crore after an FIR was lodged on June 18 by Joynagar MLA Biswanath Das of the Ritabrata Banerjee faction. The 12 newly frozen accounts are maintained across multiple public and private sector banks, taking the total number of frozen accounts to 15 with deposits of around Rs 1000 crore.
The fresh developments came a day after Justice Saugata Bhattacharyya permitted limited operation of the three HDFC accounts by appointing retired Justice Subrata Talukdar as special officer till September 30. Under the interim arrangement, the party can use the funds only for day-to-day administrative expenses, staff salaries and legal costs through cheques countersigned by the special officer, who will receive an honorarium of Rs 1.25 lakh per month from the party's funds.
However, the Mamata faction claimed the High Court's relief had been rendered ineffective after the ED froze the same three accounts in connection with its probe into an alleged Rs 160 crore money laundering case involving a private aviation firm and the purchase of an Embraer business jet and an Agusta helicopter.
Senior advocate Kishore Datta sought an urgent hearing before Justice Krishna Rao, submitting that while Justice Bhattacharyya's order dealt with the police action in the predicate offence, the fresh petition challenges the ED's action under the PMLA. The matter will be heard on Monday.
When HDFC mentioned the ED's fresh seizure order before Justice Bhattacharyya on Friday, the judge declined to modify his earlier order.
During Thursday's hearing, Justice Bhattacharyya had also questioned the "lightning speed" with which police acted on Das' complaint, asking what material justified such swift action.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.